"We want to make the fence about 9' on the north and east sides of the yard and 6' along the south side." One can't be certain what you mean by this. You aren't talking heights are you?

"We have tons of ground cover. I want to rip it all up." You should get your plan finished before you undertake this work. Some of it might be very useful in some areas. You don't say what the "groundcover" is and why you want it all gone. From the looks of the photos, it looks as though it might be several groundcovers mixed together, which is not a good idea since none of them would look very presentable then.

It looks from the plan as if you might be adding a patio. One does not show in the photos. If so, you should concentrate on fitting the hardscape (patio & fire pit area) into the plan before concerning yourself much with planting. Therefore, you need to draw an accurate ("to scale") plan where this is worked out. You could get help on it here, but unless the base plan is accurately drawn, it would be near useless at the time of construction, or for calculating costs. None of your photos show well how the back yard topography and lawn area relates to the house. The single photo is too close up and not from the best angle to show grade difference.

It's cumbersome to try to discuss what's in a photo over here when all the photos are somewhere else. it would be much better if you pick out the pertinent photos and embed them into this thread. Some people may provide comments on them anyway, but others will not so you'd be automatically limiting your feedback. If I were you, I think I'd take new photos, trying to show overall space more clearly (how the pie shape fits with the lawn and house ... and in focus with the best possible lighting.)

I don't think I read anything in your post about screening the view to the backs of neighboring houses. Or lightening the gloomy pall. You might consider talking about your overall objectives. What plants and how to use them could come later.

What kind of plants are the ground cover? The blue flowering looks like either some kind of bulb--maybe hyacinthiodes -- or else a woodland phlox. Or is it vinca? Virginia bluebells? Lol! It is really hard to tell.

Hey, Indymom76-
I looked up your post from last year. Was going to link the thread to this one, thinking you might have answered some questions there. My computer was recently slightly on the fritz and I can't get it to pull up the http address.

But here's some of what you wrote ...

"... We moved into our house about five years ago. We live in zone 5 (Indiana) and from pictures you'll see that our lot is pie-shaped. We have about 0.8 acres; most is in the front and the pie "point" is in the back. The previous owners did not want to worry about mowing, so they laid out ground cover-English ivy and something else that has taken over the backyard. There are pockets of crocus and mayapple which we don't mind and would like to incorporate into the landscape design, if possible. If some are taken out, that is fine.
The first two summers we lived in the house we were out of state and came back to a wild back yard. I want to reclaim it. I have begun the tedious task of ripping out the ivy and other ground cover; we want to blow the leaves out, cut down the new saplings that are beginning to come up and start new. There are a few dead trees in the back yard that we will have to remove as well and one black walnut I would love to get rid of-sits close to house and drops the annoying balls from the tree.

"The yard slopes away from the house and with heavy rains, the backyard can get mushy (there used to be a pond a few houses to the east of us). I didn't know if I should bring in some dirt to try to level out the backyard before beginning landscaping endeavors. I did include a rough sketch that I made one day when I was bored; I can envision a walking path with lots of hosta and a sitting area with a fire pit back there as well. I'd like to get a new privacy fence put up around our yard; the one in place has seen better days.

"We do have a patio off the house now that is approximately 10 x 15 feet. I would like to extend that across the back of the house. I would love to close off the door that leads out to the patio and knock out a window (seen in one of the pictures) and put a french door in there that leads out to the new patio area. I'd love to see something with stone that has seating and would be fun for entertaining."

The thread was from March 2012. Sorry, guys, that I can't seem to capture the http with my funky old 'puter.

I'll respond again in a few days-it's been raining here so I haven't been able to get out and get good pictures and I've been sick :/